For 'Princess,' Disney Returns
To Traditional Animation Style

By

Ethan Smith

Updated Nov. 2, 2009 12:01 a.m. ET

"The Princess and the Frog," Walt Disney Co.DIS-0.02%'s first hand-animated feature film in nearly six years, is a gamble by the studio that audiences will respond to the traditional medium of Mickey Mouse in an era when animation is dominated by slick computer-generated fare from Pixar Animation and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.DWA-1.47%

ENLARGE

Disney's 'The Princess and the Frog,' was made using hand-drawn animation techniques, rather than computer-generated imagery.
Disney

Ironically, it was two of the biggest names in computer animation—Pixar cofounders John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, who have overseen Disney Animation since 2006, when Disney bought their company for $7.4 billion—who were behind the decision to return to the hand-drawn technique, and to rehire filmmakers who use it.

Disney in 2003 announced that it was abandoning traditional animation in favor of computer-generated imagery, after a string of hand-drawn flops that included "Treasure Planet" and "Brother Bear." In the same period, DreamWorks' "Shrek" and Pixar's "Finding Nemo" cleaned up at the box office.

But from Mr. Lasseter's point of view, the real problem wasn't Disney's animation techniques—it was more fundamental elements like characters and plot.

"I've never understood why the studios were saying people don't want to see hand-drawn animation," Mr. Lasseter said at a fan convention earlier this year. "What people don't want to watch is a bad movie."

Production costs for films animated by hand or by computer tend to be comparable. The decision to use nearly photorealistic computer imagery, instead of the more impressionistic traditional technique, is mostly a matter of aesthetic calculations. Executives involved in making "Princess" say it cost slightly less than its original budget, which they declined to disclose. Others in the industry estimated the film's cost at around $150 million, a bit less than last year's "Monsters vs. Aliens," by DreamWorks Animation.

The retro production technique isn't the only hurdle facing "Princess." The movie's classic musical form, in which characters break into song, Broadway-style, could feel dated to audiences more accustomed to wisecracking movies like "Monsters."

"Princess" producer Peter Del Vecho said in an interview that the filmmakers consider that a selling point: "There is a whole new generation now that hasn't experienced a great musical, hasn't experienced a big, epic fairy tale."

Disney is aiming to build word-of-mouth buzz for "Princess" ahead of its Dec. 11 opening by holding two and half weeks' worth of premium-priced screenings at single theaters in New York City and Los Angeles. The studio says it has already sold $2.8 million worth of tickets for the unusual showings, which cost $20 to $50 and include a carnival-style event following the movie itself.

But reversing course wasn't simple. Special hand-animation workstations—with backlit, rotating drawing surfaces and pegs designed to create makeshift flipbooks out of stacks of drawings—had been scrapped or mothballed. Disney Animation's Burbank, Calif., headquarters had been turned into a warren of cubicles suited to creating computer-generated, or "CG" imagery. As for the fate of the traditional animators: about 150 were retrained at "CG Boot Camp" while others found work elsewhere, in videogames or commercial production.

Among those laid off were Ron Clements and John Musker, the writer-director team behind "The Princess and the Frog"—and previously, hits like "The Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin." The men also made the 2002 box-office disaster "Treasure Planet."

Searching for a new gig, the men paid a visit to Pixar in 2005. In an interview, Pixar President Mr. Catmull recalled experiencing "the weirdest feeling" when he realized that Pixar's success had contributed to the men's ouster. "We in no way wanted to be thought of as advocates" of computer graphics only, Mr. Catmull said. "We wanted to make great films; great films are independent of technology."

The Disney-Pixar deal was imminent, but hadn't been finalized. That meant that Pixar essentially would be bringing back to Disney two men who had just been let go. "We had to be super-secret because the talks were confidential," Mr. Catmull said.

A Disney spokeswoman said Messrs. Clements and Musker were unavailable for interviews.

Messrs. Lasseter and Catmull ordered the sprawling second floor at Disney Animation, which houses the production operation, split in two. Half continues to contain the cubicles used for computer-generated films. The other side of the floor has been transformed into a "bullpen" filled with dozens of specialized animation desks retrieved from a studio warehouse.

Still, given the way the hand-animation capacity had been dismantled, parts of the process were outsourced to firms in Canada, Florida and Brazil—all started by ex-Disney animators.

Having won one reprieve for their art form, the reassembled team of animators in Burbank have been wary of giving their bosses another reason to shut down their operation. Mr. Lasseter said: "You have never met a group of artists more dedicated to proving something than the artists who did 'The Princess and the Frog'."

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